Intelligent Field Devices (IFDS) are programmable hardware devices that are commonly used in industrial environments. Examples of IFDs include temperature sensors, pressure sensors, and valve positioners. In a typical industrial setting, there may be many independent IFDs, each of which has a configuration that is customized for the requirements of that IFD. A configuration includes instructions regarding the initial settings of the IFD and the manner in which the IFD will respond to anticipated events. Typically, the configuration of a particular IFD differs from configurations of other IFDs. A configuration can be updated as often as necessary to provide optimal IFD and system performance.
In one approach to configuring IFDs, a different configurator is used for each IFD. Typically, a configurator is a vendor-supplied, hand-held device that may be connected directly to an IFD.
Often, an IFD must recover its configuration due to a power loss, or after replacement due to device failure. A power loss may be planned, as when an IFD is taken out of service for maintenance, or unplanned, as when a power outage occurs. A common approach to recovery from a loss of power is to store the configuration data in non-volatile memory in the IFD. For large IFDs, it often is not practical to provide a sufficient amount of non-volatile memory within the device itself, due to size, speed, or cost constraints. Therefore, the configuration data for larger IFDs often are stored on a computer and downloaded to the IFD when needed.
When an IFD is replaced due to device failure, its configuration must be restored from outside the IFD. The most commonly used method for restoring configurations to an IFD is through a hand-held configurator. In particular, a hand-held configurator stores the configuration for a particular IFD on a removable medium, such as a memory pack. When that IFD is replaced, the corresponding configurator and memory pack are employed to reload the configuration onto the IFD.
A common alternative method for IFD configuration recovery is the use of a computer as a central configurator that stores all of the configurations. Typically, a portable computer is used for this purpose. To configure an IFD, the computer is connected to the IFD and the configuration is downloaded from the computer to the IFD. Often, for the sake of redundancy, a vendor provides both a hand-held configurator and a central configurator system using a portable computer.